Ending the Post A Day Challenge

I took up The Daily Post’s Post A Day challenge in 2011, meaning that I did my best to post something every day last year. I missed a few days (mainly because I’d been out with friends later than I expected), but overall, I’ve done surprisingly well — nearly 99% of the year. Although I’m not necessarily proud of everything I posted last year, I do feel a sense of accomplishment from having stuck to it. One year, however, was enough. Obviously, I haven’t committed myself to posting everyday this year.

The upside of the challenge is that I’ve had to get over my perfectionistic tendencies. Without the commitment to posting something everyday, I can justify putting off a post for months because it’s not good enough. Unfortunately, I rarely deem my posts to be good enough, so they simply didn’t get posted. To combat that, I’ve tentatively decided to post at least weekly.

Putting together my daily posts took a surprising amount of time, even when they didn’t include any kind of detailed analysis or self-reflection. After roughly 360 posts, I’m tired. I’m tired of getting home from work and scrambling to throw something together before midnight before I even have something for dinner (if one can call something that routinely takes place after midnight “dinner”). I’m tired of publishing sub-par posts simply because I feel obligated to post something. I’m tired of feeling as though my blog consists mostly of filler.

And so, I have decided to stop with the Post A Day challenge. I’m hoping to concentrate on writing better posts instead of simply a greater number of posts (and, of course, eating dinner before midnight on work nights). I’m glad that I took part in the challenge last year, but I’m also glad to not be continuing with it this year. This year, my blog will be focused, intentional, and thoughtful . . . most of the time (stream-of-consciousness posts about Doctor Who is an awful lot of fun).